diff --git a/pkg/cache/multi_namespace_cache.go b/pkg/cache/multi_namespace_cache.go
index b80b74ba08..f2ef6aa2f3 100644
--- a/pkg/cache/multi_namespace_cache.go
+++ b/pkg/cache/multi_namespace_cache.go
@@ -197,7 +197,7 @@ func (c *multiNamespaceCache) WaitForCacheSync(ctx context.Context) bool {
 func (c *multiNamespaceCache) IndexField(ctx context.Context, obj client.Object, field string, extractValue client.IndexerFunc) error {
 	isNamespaced, err := apiutil.IsObjectNamespaced(obj, c.Scheme, c.RESTMapper)
 	if err != nil {
-		return nil //nolint:nilerr
+		return err
 	}
 
 	if !isNamespaced {